Mike DeBardeleben
American sexual sadist and suspected serial killer.
James Mitchell "Mike" DeBardeleben Jr. was an American convicted kidnapper, rapist, counterfeiter, and suspected serial killer. FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood described him as the best-documented sexual sadist since the Marquis de Sade. The DSM-IV cites DeBardeleben as an example of both sexual sadism and antisocial personality disorder.
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- James Mitchell DeBardeleben Jr.
- Born
- 20 March 1940
- Birthplace
- Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.
- Died
- 26 January 2011
- Place of death
- FMC Butner, Durham County, North Carolina, U.S.
- Other names
- The Mall Passer
- Victims
- 6+ survived; 4+ murders suspected
- Conviction penalty
- 375 years imprisonment
Facts from the source article.
Background
Mike DeBardeleben was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the second of three children. His father, a U.S. Army officer, moved the family frequently, including postings to Washington, D.C., Austin, Texas, Frankfurt, Germany, and The Hague, Netherlands, before retiring to Albany, New York. His parents had an unstable marriage with many extramarital affairs; his mother was an emotionally unstable alcoholic who could become violent and often neglected the children. DeBardeleben developed a deep hatred of his mother that later generalized to women. He was subjected to considerable abuse and neglect as a child, including punishment by his father that involved holding his head underwater and switching him, beginning before he started school. From an early age, he was a quiet loner who preferred solitary activities such as drawing and sketching, which he used as an escape.
Adult life and death
DeBardeleben was expelled from high school in spring 1957 and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force that October. After a year, he was court-martialed for disorderly behavior and later discharged at age 18. He attempted high school again in 1959 but was expelled after three months. He later married Charlotte Weber, then 17, in June 1960; they had a daughter. Charlotte described him as preoccupied with vanity and apathetic but not abusive, though later wives reported torture and abuse. His brother Ralph committed suicide in August 1961. DeBardeleben died of pneumonia at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, in early 2011.
Crimes
From 1979 to 1983, the Secret Service tracked counterfeit $20 bills across thirty-eight states, all with the same flaws, leading them to a suspect known as the Mall Passer. DeBardeleben was arrested in Maryville, Tennessee after store clerks were alerted. In his car, more counterfeit bills were found, each labeled with the city where it would be passed. A search of his home and a storage unit yielded photographs of women being raped and killed, a kill kit containing handcuffs, shoelaces, chains, whips, and K-Y Jelly, homemade audiotapes of rape and torture, and sets of women's underwear. FBI profilers speculated that in photographs where his face appeared with the victim, he murdered her; where he hid his face, the victim likely lived. Most of the forty different women in his collection have never been identified. One audiotape recorded him torturing a victim, later identified as 20-year-old Laurie Jensen, as he pressed a burning cigar against her back.
Alleged victims
The precise number of DeBardeleben's victims is unknown. He resisted admitting guilt and did not boast about his crimes. Edna Terry Macdonald, a 52-year-old realtor, was found dead and hanging from a basement rafter in Barrington, Rhode Island on June 5, 1971, after meeting a client; she had been strangled with her stockings. DeBardeleben was charged but not tried for her murder. Lucy Alexander, a 19-year-old nursing student, was kidnapped from Georgetown, Delaware on March 9, 1978, subjected to multiple acts of rape and sodomy, and released the next day. Elizabeth Mason, a 31-year-old realtor, was pistol-whipped, tied up, and strangled until she passed out in Fayetteville, North Carolina on April 2, 1979; her car and underwear were taken. Laurie Jensen, 20, was abducted on January 6, 1979, in Ocean City, Maryland by a man posing as a police officer, handcuffed, blindfolded, and raped and tortured for three days. Diane Overton, 25, was pulled over on January 11, 1980, by a man posing as a police officer; she bit his hand, kicked his car's gear stick, and escaped after he tried to run her over.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Mike DeBardeleben born?
Mike DeBardeleben was born on 20 March 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.
When did Mike DeBardeleben die?
Mike DeBardeleben died on 26 January 2011 in FMC Butner, Durham County, North Carolina, U.S.
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